Police: Zimmerman wife not pressing charges

Sep. 10, 2013
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Geroge Zimmerman, far right, is escorted to a home by a Lake Mary police officer, center, and Shawn Vincent, an assistant to his attorney, on Sept. 9, 2013, in Lake Mary, Fla., after a domestic incident in the neighborhood where Zimmerman and his wife, Shellie, had lived during his murder trial. / John Raoux, AP

by William M. Welch, John Bacon and Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY

by William M. Welch, John Bacon and Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY

The estranged wife of George Zimmerman opted not to press charges against her husband Monday after police in Florida responded to her sobbing 911 call reporting he had punched her father and was threatening them with a gun.

"I'm really scared,'' Shellie Zimmerman can be heard telling Lake Mary, Fla., police in an audio recording of a 911 call placed around 2 p.m. Monday to authorities in the suburb northeast of Orlando.

Zimmerman was acquitted in July in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in a case that captured the nation's attention and put a spotlight on Florida's self-defense gun laws.

Police allowed Zimmerman to go free Monday afternoon after questioning him outside the home where Shellie Zimmerman placed the 911 call. Police Chief Steve Bracknell said Shellie Zimmerman and her father decided not to press charges after consulting with an attorney.

Police deputy chief Colin Morgan said earlier that police held George Zimmerman in "investigative detention'' while they investigated the dispute.

A police spokesman said Zimmerman and his wife, who filed for divorce last week, were blaming each other for starting the fight at her father's home.

In an audio recording of Shellie Zimmerman's 911 call, she can be heard saying Zimmerman smashed an iPad she was holding and cut it with a pocket knife, struck her father in the nose and threatened both while putting a hand on a gun.

Deputy Police Chief Colin Morgan said officers did not recover a gun, and Bracknell said Shellie Zimmerman later dropped her claim that a gun was involved.

"Domestic violence can't be invoked because she has changed her story and says she didn't see a firearm," Bracknell said.

The dispute "was between him and his wife and her father,'' Morgan said. "There were some allegations that there had been an assault, but we could not confirm any of it.''

Orlando TV station WKMG reported that Shellie Zimmerman's parents, David and Machelle Dean, live at the home.

In the divorce petition, Shellie Zimmerman says she and her husband separated a month after Zimmerman, who is Hispanic, was acquitted of any crime for fatally shooting Martin, a black teenager, last July. The verdict sparked protests across the nation.

Zimmerman has been pulled over at least twice for speeding since his acquittal.